By Joseph M. Morgan, Editor and Publisher

joseph@southerntorch.com

DEKALB COUNTY, Ala. -  The World's Longest Yard Sale (WLYS), also known as the 127 Yard Sale, runs directly through the heart of DeKalb County and it officially kicked off in DeKalb County today. 

The 690-mile yard sale kicked runs through the entire weekend, ending on Sunday. In DeKalb County the WLYS runs across Lookout Mountain from one end of the county to the other.

DeKalb Tourism, an organization headquartered in Fort Payne that works to increase tourism throughout DeKalb County, works to promote WLYS each year in an effort to urge the residents of DeKalb and the surrounding areas to get out and shop the yard sale.

DeKalb Tourism Director John Dersham estimates that as many as 25,000 to 30,000 visitors will travel along the WLYS route from Gadsden to the Georgia state line over this weekend.

"We expect a good crowd this year but early school start dates in many areas including Alabama have taken some of our families out of the attendance," Dersham said. "With this said, we still anticipate the WLYS will continue to be a major annual event for us for years to come."

There are individual yard sales set up sporadically in the front yards of residents along the entire route, but sales are concentrated and set up side-by-side in large groups to make it more convenient to shoppers and draw in bigger crowds.

The areas in DeKalb County that provide the largest groups of combined yard sellers are located in the communities of  (going from South to North) Sand Rock, Dogtown, Fort Payne, and Mentone before crossing the border into the state of Georgia.

After crossing the state line, the yard sale continues all the way to the state of Michigan for an eventual total of 690 miles.

Despite the size of this number many people agree the WLYS is not as big as its peak in the late 90’s thru 2005.

In its 29th year, the yard sale officially begins just down the road in Etowah County at the foot of Tabor Road near Noccalula Falls in Gadsden.
From there, it runs across Lookout Mountain Parkway where it entrs DeKalb County.

The sale officially starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday, but many vendors in DeKalb County begin setting up early Wednesday morning.